1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an apparatus for determining the location of receptor regions with a device which records the physical properties of the tissue in the area of the receptor regions by means of measurement technology.
2. The Prior Art
There is a stimulation-conduction relationship between individual body parts and receptor regions which are located below the skin surface at other locations of the body. By stimulating the receptor regions, influence can be exerted on the body parts assigned to these receptor regions. This relationship is utilized in acupuncture to influence body parts located at other locations of the body by stimulating points or areas located below the skin surface. For stimulation of such points or areas, needles can be inserted into the surface of the body. The receptor regions are relatively small, generally smaller than 1 mm, and for an effective influence on the body parts assigned to a receptor region, it is necessary that stimulation takes place precisely at the location of the receptor region in question.
It is possible to influence symptoms present at certain body parts, or pain conditions resulting from such symptoms, by stimulating receptor regions, resulting in normalization or improvement of the condition.
When changes or pain sensations resulting from such changes are present, changes in nerve activity also occur at the receptor regions which are assigned to the body parts affected, which change the condition of the tissue in the area of the receptor regions; in most cases, changes in the fluid distribution (fluid shifts) occur in these tissue areas. However, in the receptor regions, deviations as compared with the surrounding tissue can be present even without changes being demonstrated by the related body parts, which make the location of the receptor regions evident. It is also possible to improve the recognition of the receptor regions by influencing the body parts assigned to the receptor regions.
With a known apparatus of the type mentioned initially, an attempt has been made to determine the location of receptor regions used for acupuncture by determining the membrane potentials in the area of the skin being considered, using measurement technology, by means of electrodes placed on the skin and by means of a voltage measuring device connected with them, and by drawing conclusions concerning the location of the areas in question from the measured shift in potential. It is also known to measure the electrical resistance in the region of the skin, instead of or as a supplement to such potential measurements, and to conclude the position of points used for acupuncture from the measurement values obtained, and also, if necessary, to use auxiliary voltages or auxiliary currents which are supplied with additional electrodes or with the measurement electrodes themselves, both for the potential measurements and for the resistance measurements. The reliability of these known techniques is not satisfactory, particularly because the skin has irregular levels of keratinization in its outer layer and this detrimentally affects the electrical measurements; however, there are inherently very different tissue properties in those areas in which the receptor regions are located, and these differences, which are superimposed on the changes to be determined, cannot be satisfactorily eliminated with the known systems, even when using electrodes inserted through the skin surface, which is not only felt to be unpleasant due to the large number of measurement points necessary, as a rule, but can also result in changes, caused by the unpleasant sensations, which detrimentally affect the measurement.
A measurement of the electrical potential or the magnetic field strength which are present at individual points of a skin area, to determine the location of points to be used for acupuncture, is also described in DE-A-2 928 826. Here, sensors which detect the fields in a very small area are used for measurements, and these sensors are guided over the skin area to be examined during the measurement.